Rainbow Islands

This time you're not spewing bubbles, but rainbows. Rainbow Islands is a direct sequel to the beloved Bubble Bobble and brings its colorful, inventive idea straight onto Nintendo's eight-bit console. The little dragons have turned back into the boys Bub and Bob, and their new weapon and moving platform alike are vibrant, multicolored rainbows.

The gameplay principle is brilliantly simple yet deep. You create rainbows that serve at once as a weapon against enemies and as bridges you climb up. When you smash a rainbow above you, it falls down and can strike opponents beneath you. Unlike the statically conceived Bubble Bobble, here you progress upward, and the goal of each level is to reach the top, ideally before the rising water catches up with you.

Taito released Rainbow Islands at the end of the eighties, and the game became famous for its imaginative rainbow mechanic and its wealth of hidden secrets. Collecting colored diamonds in the correct order unlocks bonuses and secret endings, making the game a deeper experience than it might first appear. Thematically, each island offers a different setting, from an insect world to a toy kingdom, which brings the game to life visually.

Rainbow Islands became one of the pillars of the so-called Bubble Bobble series and, together with Parasol Stars, formed a trio of titles that Taito's little dragons hold as their family lineage. The game is prized for its combination of accessibility and surprising depth, and it still appears in retro collections and compilations to this day.

The NES version brings this colorful gem to a console where, despite technical limitations, it retains its distinctive playability and charm. For fans of Taito as well as lovers of clever arcade platformers, it's a title worth discovering.

Why play it: An inventive sequel to Bubble Bobble with a brilliant rainbow mechanic. A colorful, addictive platformer full of secrets to uncover.